Duplicity: Thy Fearful Symmetry
by Oblivious Obscenity
Summary: Ciel, now Lexci, is Organization XIII's newest member. She and Roxas are drawn to each other as like calls to like. As they search for their missing selves, they discover they may be keys to the future, and they'll have to decide which doors to unlock.
1. A New Name

**Chapter 1: A New Name**

Xemnas found the girl purely by accident. He was returning to the Castle that Never Was via a Corridor of Darkness when he felt a surprisingly strong, insistent tug towards a different world. He obeyed the pull and allowed the Corridor to take him where it would, popping into existence in a world trapped in limbo.

He saw a girl in the endless stretch of blackness, withdrawn and alone. A smirk curled his lips when he realized what a prize he'd found.

"Is somebody there?" The girl's voice penetrated the silence and darkness like an arrow. She was frightened, that much was easy to tell, furious, and slightly hopeful. Her narrow, pale face crawled with the shadows that clung to her slight frame. Her flimsy white dress seemed to drink in the darkness.

The cloaked figure drifted closer until he stood an arm's length away. He was barely distinguishable against the blackness. "No, nobody." His voice was low-pitched, slightly amused under its monotone.

The dark-haired girl didn't move, didn't flinch, just stared up with her ink-black eyes.

"What is your name?"

Her breath caught. Fear held her as surely as the shadows. Her name bubbled up before she could stop it. "Ciel."

Light flashed, blinding the girl, and when she could see again, the letters of her name were floating in the air. An X dropped down and, slowly, they rearranged themselves into a new name.

"You are Lexci."

Ciel lifted her chin, her long hair falling away from her face, a hint of her old stubbornness emerging. "No, I'm not."

There was a deep sigh. "Come with me, Lexci."

"Why should I?" Her voice was breathless with fear, but she managed to sound both confident and scathing. "The scenery here is lovely."

Another sigh. Of all the Nobodies in the worlds, he had to have found another one with a smart mouth. "Come." He lifted his black-gloved hand and, watching the girl's fear grow, beckoned.

"No."

But the matter wasn't up for discussion. With another twitch of his fingers, a portal opened under her legs. Ciel had time for one good yelp of surprise before the darkness sucked her in.

Less than a second later, before Ciel even understood what had happened, she was kneeling in the middle of a blindingly white room. Her eyes, accustomed to darkness after who-knew-how-long in that strange place, burned from their brief encounter with light, and she closed them tightly.

She heard rustling in the room, loud footfalls, and confused voices.

A heavy hand fell on her shoulder. Ciel knew without looking that it was the strange man from before and stiffened.

"This is Lexci." That was all he said. _This is Lexci_. And then he left.

A simple statement. Also a false one.

After what seemed an eternity of listening to whispers and loud breathing, Ciel opened her eyes experimentally.

There were two figures, both wearing hooded black coats that extended to their ankles, black gloves, and black boots. They towered over her. She was kneeling, after all, but both would have been taller even if she were standing. Ciel thought they looked male, but it was hard to tell.

"My name," she said firmly, "is Ciel."

"That's nice," the taller of the two said in a raspy drawl. "I'm Axel. This is Roxas."

Roxas nodded at his name, suspicion plain in his stance.

"Welcome to the Castle That Never Was. It's our headquarters."

"'Our'?" she repeated questioningly.

"Organization XIII."

"'Organization'...?"

Axel sighed. "Why do they always make me look after the newbies, huh?" he complained to no one in particular. "Organization XIII is—surprise—an **organization** of **thirteen**—"

"Fourteen," his companion corrected. His bright blue eyes pierced her from under his hood with such intensity that Ciel shrank back. "Fourteen, now."

"Yeah." Axel continued, "_Fourteen_ Nobodies."

She looked at them blankly. "What are Nobodies?"

Axel laughed, but there was no trace of amusement in the sound. "Nothing. Nobodies are nothing—we don't exist."

Ciel looked from one Nobody to the other, wishing she could see their faces. The hoods shouldn't have provided so much coverage, but they did. She could barely make out the shorter one's eyes, which were an eerily luminescent blue. She shook her head to show she didn't understand. "I exist."

"Denial," Axel told Roxas when the latter angled his head toward the former. "It's pretty common."

Roxas said, ignoring Ciel, "I'm going. Rematch tomorrow."

"Sure thing. I'll whoop your ass then."

When Roxas' footsteps had faded, Ciel commented, "He doesn't like me much."

Axel shook his head, evidently amused. "He can't dislike you anymore than he can like you—Nobodies can't feel. Nobodies have no emotions and Nobodies have no existence. We don't have a heart—heartless. Oh, but we aren't Heartless." Seeing her increasingly confused expression, he dropped his poor attempt at an explanation and said, "C'mon. I guess I have to show you the ropes."

_I exist_, Ciel thought with conviction, but she didn't say it out loud this time. _I feel and I exist._

"—just right now... Are you listening? Hey, pay attention!"

Ciel tore her gaze away from the chevron-patterned floor. She smiled at the Nobody. "I wasn't listening."

"No, I couldn't tell." Axel's voice dripped sarcasm. "Anyways, put this on." He held out a black cloak like his own.

Ciel took it. _When'd he get this? And from where?_ She didn't ask and slid the garment on. Oddly enough, when she zipped it up the plain coat, her bare feet were booted, gloves appeared on her small hands, and loose pants covered her legs. She didn't ask about that either. "What about the hood?"

"_What_ about the hood?"

"Do I have to wear it? I'll get hat hair." She shook out her sheet of blue-black hair, which fell to her mid-back and shone like glossy raven feathers.

"No, you don't have to," he said, and she could almost hear him roll his eyes.

"Can you take yours off then?"

This seemed to take him by surprise. Or, if he indeed felt no emotions as he'd claimed, he feigned this as well as he feigned amusement. "Why?"

Ciel fidgeted and tried to peer up under the hood. "I don't like the... the..."—she gestured vaguely—"the air of secrecy. It's like you have something to hide."

"Maybe I do." He sounded amused again. "But if it bothers you..." Axel raised his hands and gripped the edge of his hood but didn't lower it. "Then I think I'll just keep my hood up."

Ciel frowned. "Are you sure you're a Nobody? You act a lot like"—she paused and cocked her head—"the people I used to know."

"Well, it's not like we've completely forgotten what it was like. We still have memories—'cept Roxas, he's special—of when we were alive. You're still confusing _remembering _for actually _feeling_, if you get my meaning. It'll fade," he assured her, as though he thought she wanted them to. "But we are Nobodies: no heart, no emotions. Got it memorized?"

She didn't like talking about that and changed the subject. "Why am I here, Axel?"

Axel snorted. "Subtle topic shift... We're all here for the same reasons." He gave a small shrug. "Actually, there're lots of different reasons. Essentially though, we're just a bunch of Nobodies trying to become Somebodies. If you're here, it's 'cause you'll help us reach that goal... to obtain Kingdom Hearts."

A shiver of barely discernable emotions ran through Ciel. It was like longing, sorrow, fear, and awe all rolled into one. "Kingdom Hearts..." she echoed slowly, tasting the name on her tongue and shuddering again. It made her heart ache with a pain she couldn't put into words. She licked her lips, which had gone suddenly numb. "Somebodies?"

"Whole," Axel elaborated obligingly, "real, _human_."

Ciel swallowed. "What if I'm fine the way I am?"

He considered that one. "Are you?"

"No. I'm not."

Axel spread his arms wide. "Then you'll fit right in with the rest of us."

* * *

**Author's Notes :****D**

I love Kingdom Hearts. It's probably the first video game I got really into, besides for Final Fantasy and Zelda. I heart all three. Square Enix has a habit of making really hot and smexy imaginary characters. This can't be good for our health. It's a conspiracy, I tell you...! Jk -_-; SE, please continue to dazzle my eyes with hot, smexy Riku/Roxas/countless others -drool-  
AHEM...! Anyways XD First chapters are always great fun. And hopefully good. Is it... passable?  
Feedback would be greatly appreciated. Especially about Axel. He's a hard character. Seriously, he must have multiple personality disorder or something XD;

Thanks for reading! Kudos :)


	2. Night Horrors

**Chapter 2: Night Horrors**

_It was a dream. She was back in that horrible place of darkness. The darkness pressed in on her, heavy and suffocating. The cloaked man was before her. He wanted to rename her, remake her. In her dream, she had a choice, and he was just another transient nightmare. _

Ciel awoke with a knife at her throat. A woman, her face hidden by a raised hood, knelt on top of her, her bony knees digging uncomfortably into Ciel's chest. The unknown assailant held her razor-sharp dagger just close enough to Ciel's skin to prickle.

"Rise and shine, precious," the cloaked woman said. Her voice was slightly sibilant and reminded Ciel of poisoned honey. "I've soooo been dying to meet you."

"How nice," Ciel said. Wheezed, rather, as she was having a hard time breathing at the moment. Lack of oxygen had probably woken her. The woman must have been kneeling there for a while; her entire upper body was numb. She looked skinny, but she was heavy as hell. "I'd shake your hand or something, but I can't feel my arm at the moment. It's really starting to get uncomfortable."

"You really _are_ all he said," she said delightedly in a most cold and sepulchral voice, pressing the knife ever closer to the pulsing vein in Ciel's neck.

The younger girl should have been terrified, and in a vague, distant sort of way she was. No, that was a lie, Ciel realized. If she concentrated hard on the elusive fear, feeding and nurturing it, it grew like a parasite until it was almost the full-blown terror she'd felt when _he_'d found her.

"Would you mind," Ciel enquired in a shaky half-whisper, "letting me up?"

There was a vicious grin in the other woman's voice when she spoke: "But that wouldn't be fun, now would it, precious? Don't you want to _play_?" A second blade caressed Ciel's cheek, slicing through pale skin.

This freak was obviously mentally unstable. It wasn't unexpected, and the raven-haired girl was starting to wonder if insanity was a prerequisite for Organization XIII. The worst part was that they could all kill her without batting an eyelid. Ciel suspected this latest acquaintance would all too willingly carve her up just for _play_.

As a third dagger appeared and things were starting to look extra bleak, the door burst open and a unhooded Axel swaggered in. "Oi, girl! Get up and... oh..." Axel halted, halfway across the room. His narrow green eyes quickly made sense of the situation. "I had no idea I was interrupting your favorite past time, Larxene," he drawled, ridiculously small red eyebrows raised. "I'll come back later..."

Ciel turned her head slowly, wary of the knife at her neck, and looked at him beseechingly.

Larxene let loose a howling, derisive laugh that belonged to the Witch of the Wild Woods. They didn't call her the Savage Nymph for nothing. "Oh, stay, Axel. I know how you love to watch."

"As much as I'd enjoy that, I think I should..." He caught Ciel's gaze and then grinned. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Larxene, picking on the new girl like this?"

"Not really, no."

"Hmm, I suppose you wouldn't be."

Ciel raised her eyebrows in a silent plea.

"Marluxia's downstairs," he said blandly and seemingly randomly. "The whole hall smells like sakura."

"Oh?" said Larxene, and she, amazingly, slid off Ciel's chest and walked toward the open door. "This was fun, precious. Let's do it again sometime."

"I'll pass," Ciel mumbled as she flexed her arms and rotated her shoulders. She winced at the pins-and-needles sensation as blood flowed to her deprived muscles. "Thanks, Axel. I owe you."

"Yeah, you do. I like having favors to collect."

"Happily, I believe in returning favors."

Axel started to smile, but his expression changed to one of incredulity and pain when Ciel's fist smashed into his nose. His head snapped back, and his hands flew up to protect his face from further abuse.

"Debt paid in full." Oh, yes, that felt good.

"De 'ell, girl," Axel whined. His voice was muffled as he pinched his nose to stop the sluggish flow from both nostrils. "But de 'ell was dat?"

"You told her where I was, didn't you?" Ciel demanded, folding her trembling arms tightly across her chest. "And then you _pretended_ to help me. Do you think I'm stupid?"

"No, I dink you're baranoid," the red-head grumbled. "And if dat's your idea of redurning bavors, I dink I'll consider your buture debts nullibied." He felt his nose gingerly and grimaced.

Ciel shifted guiltily. She wasn't entirely convinced of his innocence, but the fact that he hadn't hit her back worked in his favor. "Oh. Sorry. It's not broken, is it?"

"No, I dink it's sprained."

He said this with such a deadpan expression that the joke fell to the floor before Ciel worked it out and realized she was supposed to laugh. "Oh," she said belatedly. "Haha."

Axel sighed deeply and rolled his eyes. Still pinching the bridge of his nose, he hummed nasally like a priest praying for patience. "For a smart mouth, you've got no sense of humor to speak of."

"Speaking of speech, yours is sounding a lot clearer," she noted suspiciously.

"Nobodies heal pretty quickly. You could ask Zexion why, but I doubt he'd tell you."

Ciel touched her cheek, which was still wet, but there was unbroken skin beneath the drying blood. She whistled, impressed. "That's pretty handy."

"There're advantages to being a Nobody. Like getting free sea salt ice cream."

She shook her head. "Advantages that outweigh the lack of emotions and—sea salt ice cream? Is that—oh, haha."

"I swear, you catch on slow. The advantage is never having to be fooled by your heart. Because you don't have one. All you've got is good old rationality." He tapped his temple to make his point.

"Rationality? But you're all insane!" It just came out. She hadn't meant to say it so frankly.

Axel sat down on her bed without an invitation and crossed his legs like he was meditating. "Sometimes I wonder if that's true. But you've met some of our worst. Me and Roxas, we're normal." He paused, noting her dubious expression, and added, "Relatively speaking."

Ciel shook her head and kept shaking her head when Axel started to nod. "I don't want to be a part of this. How hard would it be to run away?"

The older Nobody traced the trail made by the rubies of her blood that had fallen onto the white sheets. "Very hard. You'd die. I know, because I'd kill you."

She laughed then, a thin, brittle sound.

"No, I'm not joking, Lexci. I eliminate the traitors of the Organization, and if you run away, a traitor is what you are. Besides, what would you do if you left? You don't belong anywhere; you aren't anyone."

She bit her lip and looked down at floor because she couldn't meet Axel's cold emerald eyes. She didn't even correct him about her name. That part didn't matter compared to his other statements. "All right," she said softly.

Axel drew an X in the air over her heart—or where her heart would have been if she weren't a Nobody. "Come on," he said, sounding almost kind. "I still have a lot to teach you."

"Fun," muttered Ciel.

"Not for me," Axel snapped.

Ciel stared at the back of his spiky-haired head as she followed him down the halls. He was so hard to read, swinging between kind and cold, human and Nobody. She wondered if that were truly his personality or if it were simply calculated to throw her. "Why couldn't I have just died?" she wondered aloud. "Why'd I have to get reborn as a Nobody with this terrifying bunch?"

"You're as bad as Roxas," Axel said gruffly without looking at her. "I'm not interested in your introspective emo ramblings."

On cue, Roxas—Ciel recognized him by his angry, insistent stride—turned the corner and stopped when he saw Axel leading Ciel around. His hood was up, so the girl couldn't see his eyes, but she felt him determinedly ignoring her.

"Good morning," she greeted, and she received a curt nod for her troubles.

"Don't be so stiff, Roxas!" Axel cajoled, sliding behind his friend and kneading his shoulders. "This one's not like Larxene; she won't eat you up when she's finished with you." He gave Roxas a little push forward. "Say hi."

"Cut it out," Roxas sighed, shrugging off Axel's bony hands. He turned his back on Ciel to face his fiery-haired friend. Without bothering to lower his voice, the young man said, "I heard you were still squiring the new girl around, so I came to tell you that Larxene offered to take over her training."

Axel smirked at Ciel, whose eyes had widened with dread at this statement, over Roxas's shoulder. "Did she, now? How special for you, Lexci."

"It's Ciel," she corrected.

"Tomato, tomahto," he responded, flicking his thin wrists dismissively.

Roxas demanded, "You're not giving her up?"

"I think we have a duty to keep our buddy from Larxene's little knives."

Roxas sighed. "If you say so." He did a 180 so he was facing Ciel. He still looked suspicious, but now his posture was hesitant and nervous, too.

Ciel tried to smile. She wouldn't hold the fact that he evidently thought she wasn't worth their time against him. "Hi."

"...Hi," he said reluctantly.

Ciel stepped forward impulsively, her fingers catching Roxas's hood and bunching up the material as she started to push it down.

Roxas leapt away like she had the plague, his movement knocking the heavy black cloth down. A mess of spiky blonde hair jumped up, standing on end just as stiff and tense as the boy was. His pale face went taunt. His sapphire eyes pinned her down like an insect under a microscope, determined to dissect her.

Ciel held up her hands, backing away from the angry frustration she saw on his face. "I can't stand the secrecy, and..." she said, trying to explain what had possessed her to act and trailing off when she realized Roxas wasn't listening.

Roxas yanked the hood back up around his ears. "Don't," he warned her in a shaking voice, "do that again."

"Sorry," she said, tucking a stray lock of black hair behind her ear nervously. "I didn't mean to. I'm sorry. Are we good?"

Roxas didn't reply. He simply stomped past her and disappeared around the corner.

Ciel turned to Axel helplessly.

"Fascinating," her guide murmured, staring after the blond thoughtfully.

"What is?"

His green eyes jerked back to her, and Axel smiled as sincerely he always did. "To hazard a guess, I'd say you are to Roxas as Demyx is to me."

"Demyx? Is that a person?"

"I wonder." Axel clapped her on the back encouragingly and steered her down the hall. "Pray you never find out."

* * *

**Welcome (Back)!  
**

Larxene creeps me out. So do Marluxia and Xemnas. So does Saix. They're a creepy group. I'd write them out of the story, but that wouldn't be realistic, would it? Not that KH is realistic. And I love it for that.  
I'm not really happy with chapter 2. It's more plot building than actual plot, and I hope chap 3'll bring some action, but we'll see. Dunno when it'll be out either.  
Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing! Reviewing on the last chapter, I mean. I hope on this one, too? :)


	3. A Teacher Affects Eternity

**Recap: **Because, let's face facts… I'll never keep a schedule. Therefore, I've decided to have a mini recap at the beginning of each new chapter so you, my beloved readers, don't need to go back to the first chapter.

_Ciel wakes up and Larxene, surprise, acts like her usual sadistic self. Luckily, Axel is there to come to the rescue! Then the savior and the saved coincidentally meet Roxas, who behaves very oddly indeed. After Roxas effectively runs from Ciel for reasons unknown, we ended the chapter with Axel comparing our protagonist to Demyx in a multi-layered analogy. _

A good recap it's not. I hope that is enough to jog your memory a bit. I may have mentioned my issues with conciseness in previous chapters/other stories... as evidenced by this rant. Happy reading! ^o^

* * *

**Chapter 3: A Teacher Affects Eternity **

"They say D minor is the saddest key," the cheery blond told her, shifting the position of her left hand on the neck of the beaten chillador. "But I don't think so." He waved a finger in the air, motioning for her to play.

Ciel strummed briefly, concentrating on the melancholic resonance. She looked up at her instructor's satisfied face and plucked the bottom four strings. "You don't think so?"

"Nah." Demyx lifted his sitar and played a series of chords, pausing when his student winced. "D# minor," he said. He glanced over his shoulder at his bedroom door to make sure it was closed and lowered his voice cautiously. "It's _Larxene's_ key. Scary, huh?"

She nodded.

"You want to know the others'?"

She nodded again.

Demyx played each chord, naming the Organization member while his long fingers shifted smoothly between frets. He never had to glance at the fingerboard. "Db major: Xemnas. Eb major: Zexion. F major: Lexaeus. F# major: Xigbar. F# minor: Marluxia. G minor: Vexen. Ab major: Luxord. Ab minor: Saix. A minor: yours truly. Bb minor: Xaldin. B major: Axel."

Ciel didn't recognize most of the names, and she didn't understand the connotations of each key, either. All she knew was that none of their musical representations, despite undeniable beauty, sounded remotely pleasant. She also noticed one member was missing and couldn't help asking, "What about Roxas? What is he?"

The blond's nimble fingers skimmed the strings again. He played a series of notes that sounded like a scale, but again, Ciel couldn't be sure. "The Key of Destiny," he answered cryptically.

Puzzled, she stared into Demyx' unequivocal blue eyes, searching for some hint of the context. Failing to find any, she repeated, "The Key of Destiny? Is that, like, D major?"

He laughed, as though she had made a joke. "That's funny!" The young man paused, and then Demyx scratched his head, accidentally flattening a patch of spiked hair. "Sorry, I forgot you're new."

When he didn't follow his apology with an explanation, Ciel asked, "What's the saddest key?"

This time, Demyx didn't play. Instead he laid his instrument tenderly across his folded legs. His facial expression shifted from impish to morose faster than even the King of Masks could have managed. "B minor. Even worse than Larxene's. Know what I mean?"

"I don't understand very much of what you said," she confessed.

"You'll figure it out when you meet the others," Demyx assured her. His tone wasn't mocking or dismissive, which she knew Axel's would have been. He wasn't cold like Roxas, and he certainly didn't terrify her the way Larxene and the other one had. The blue-eyed blond was genuinely nice. Probably.

Ciel nodded a third time. Her neck was getting supple from all the bending. "Okay."

"Everyone's always going out on missions, so it might be a while before all of them get to introducing themselves. Some of them are pretty antisocial, too."

"Antisocial..." Ciel thought of Roxas. He qualified as unsociable by her standards. But Axel had said that he and Roxas were normal. "Is that anyone I've met?"

"Who do you know?" he asked. He took the miniature guitar from her, signaling the end of their lesson.

"You, Axel, Roxas... Larxene." She and her newfound friend both shuddered. "There was the first one, the one who brought me here. I don't know his name." She counted them mentally. Five out of thirteen. They were too few to draw any negative conclusions about the remaining members. The girl hoped to God she wouldn't meet any more Larxenes.

Demyx fiddled with one of the tuning pegs. His sitar had been perfectly in tune. "Did he name you?"

"Uh-huh."

"That's the Su-pe-ri-or." Demyx enunciated each syllable slowly and with great care. "The boss man, Xemnas. The naming ceremony is his deal."

"Naming ceremony? When he does the X thing?"

There must have been some significance in the letter X. It was a part of each name, and the Superior went to the trouble of changing each member's name. She wanted to ask him, but somehow, she didn't believe Demyx would know. Ciel made a mental note to ask Axel, but somehow, she didn't believe he would answer her. It was worse than when her sycophantic tutors had to guide her lessons with selective information.

"People used to call me Ciel." Ciel was careful to state this with neutrality. She didn't want to risk a tentative friendship over a name. The girl had the impression that Demyx was unique in Organization XIII.

"You don't like that name, huh? It'll be better once you get used to it. Roxas was sore just, like, yesterday. He didn't know his old name, either. Hey, it's not too bad being a Nobody," he added encouragingly when he looked up from his sitar and saw her blank expression. "The way I see it, the Organization is a huge dysfunctional family at a reunion party."

"That's... uh, quaint."

Demyx grinned, revealing teeth that were as white as the walls. "Thanks. So am I. A quaint, canorous callant is what Luxord called me."

"Ab major," Ciel recalled.

The blond looked proud of her. "Exactly."

Neither of them spoke for a moment as Demyx concentrated on retuning the strings he'd tightened.

"You're a better teacher than Axel," she commented randomly.

"Of course, I am. Don't tell him this, but"—Demyx leaned in close—"I'm naturally better. He's fire and I'm water, you see?" His next declaration was shouted at the top of his lungs in the direction of the door. "**So my awesome water warriors put out his lame fire chak—"**

The door burst apart in an explosion of sparks and shards of white plaster. A fireball roared past where Ciel sat, helpless, and headed straight for the jokester Nobody. It clashed with the barrier of water that jumped up around Demyx. The cerulean shield vaporized.

Tongues of flame licked the hem of Demyx' black coat tauntingly. Demyx yelped curses as he beat out the flames, hopping absurdly around his room and flailing his limbs. He ran in circles around his room, knocking over stacks of papers and piles of discarded cardboard boxes. The show continued until the maladroit blond tripped and collapsed onto his unmade bed. He beat his fists on the mattress and screeched like a child having a tantrum.

Ciel scrambled over the messy floor, slipping on books of sheet music, and frantically smothered the persistent fire with Demyx' rainbow-colored comforter. She heard a sound and turned toward the door, a scorched pillow held out before her like a shield.

Axel sauntered in, crushing the ruins of Demyx' door under his black boots. He twirled in his hands a pair of strange, circular weapons enhanced with long spikes along the circumference. "What," the menacing fire-wielder growled, "did you say?"

Demyx held up his hands, offering surrender. "Just kidding," he grinned. "Hey, Ciel, we were just kidding around, eh?"

Ciel let the pillow-comme-shield fall and nodded mutely. She couldn't find her voice.

Axel focused his cold eyes on her, and he smiled plastically. "I wondered where you'd gone. Come on, girl, I have to get you ready for your first assignment."

She looked at Demyx, who was still grinning.

He waved.

Ciel rose reluctantly and stretched her long legs. They had cramped painfully in the hours she'd been kneeling on the hard floor and were stiff. "Thanks," she mumbled, not looking at the foolishly good-natured face.

Axel gave Demyx a look, a promise of future punishment, and marched Ciel out of the room.

Demyx called out as they left, "You're C minor. Good luck to you!"

The red-haired Nobody glanced back towards his charge. "What's that about, then?" he demanded suspiciously, jerking his head in Demyx' direction.

"C minor is a musical key," Ciel replied. "The C minor triad is formed with the root, third, and fifth of the C minor scale: C, Eb, and G."

Her deadpan response must have surprised him. Axel stopped walking, stared at her for a few seconds, and sighed. "Hopeless," he muttered in his nasal whisper. "You're worse than Roxas when he was new. Your attitude is gonna, well…" Axel feinted a punch, and Ciel flinched violently. His fist froze a hairsbreadth from the bridge of her nose, hovered there ambiguously, and then relaxed to tap her lightly on the head. "Your attitude," he reiterated, "is gonna get you killed."

Ciel stepped out from under his hand and ran her trembling fingers through her dark hair. She glowered up at his haughty countenance. _Her _attitude? When Axel was bipolar and as temperamental as an active volcano? Unfortunately, based on what Ciel had seen, he was also Organization XIII's normal. She bowed her head. "I'd rather it doesn't."

Axel waggled a bony finger in her face. "See what I mean?" He considered her silence and muttered with a role of his emerald green eyes, "No, you probably don't."

"I don't," she agreed.

Another sigh. Louder, this time. "It's a good thing," he mused, "I didn't hand you over to Larxene. You'd be so much as pretty ribbons to decorate the castle with by now, and we're trying to recruit members instead of lose them."

"Recruiting? Why?"

Axel gave her a look. It was a look that said she was stupid for asking and would have known if she'd paid any attention at all. If he'd been wearing spectacles, the Nobody would have looked exactly like Ciel's former tutor. "Another dreamer," he said contemptuously. "Shape up," he advised. "It's not kind ol' Axel you'll answer to if you disappoint. _He_ has high expectations for you. Then again, he hasn't got a clue about your attitude problem, does he?"

Ciel's dragging feet became rooted to the ground.

Axel kept walking and was nearly three meters ahead of her before he noticed that she'd stopped. Impatient, he stomped back and posed, akimbo. With his thin physique and feminine features, he looked just like a girl. "What is it, _now_?"

"What do you mean? Who has what expectations for whom?"

His mouth split into a creepy smile just shy of Larxene's. "Whoops. I may have said too much," Axel acknowledged shamelessly.

"Axel?" she probed, not very hopefully.

"Nuh-uh. You have fun figuring it out on your own." He smirked. His tone was both mocking and dismissive, just as she had expected.

"'A teacher affects eternity,'" she quoted for him. "Or so my tutor said."

"Tutor, huh? So little Lexci was a rich kid. Makes sense, since you know _nothing_."

"Isn't that why you are supposed to teach me?"

"Hmph. It's about time you finally want to learn." Axel grabbed her by the wrist, but instead of leading her down the hallway, he opened a dark, ominous abyss in the middle of the white wall. It was, she remembered, what the Superior had done.

She didn't want to go in and balked when Axel pushed her toward the darkness.

"Suck it up. We're on a deadline—there's not time to walk everywhere."

The girl gazed indecisively at the rippling black hole and the smooth white wall. In truth, she was less afraid of the darkness than of the light. Ciel took a breath, stepped into the portal, and let darkness dissolve her body.

* * *

**Quays and Artichokes**

About content from 358/2 Days, Roxas' lovely backstory…

Well, since I've also never played 358/2 Days, only common knowledge from that game could possibly be included. I'd like to take the opportunity to confess that I've never played CoM, either. Don't have a Gameboy Advance. Don't have a DS either. It's cool that they try to diversify their games, but I can't be expected to buy a new consol at each release, can I?

**The Mini Blog (Formerly A/N)**

Remember how I wanted this chapter to have action? Yep… failed. We'll try for next chapter? Please be patient with me. It's that these chapters are a lot shorter than my usual. I don't know why. Although this one, despite its shaky transitions, is a bit longer.

Erk. I need A LOT of critique, and I would appreciate it so much. (hint hint ;D)

Thank you, all of you wonderful readers and reviewers and subscribers and favorite-ers! Best wishes for the new year! 2010, woot! It's graduation year. It's college application deadline time. It's dwindling vacation days. It's countdown to failing AP exams. It's time for me to stop being weird! I hope you all have a nice holiday!


	4. The Herald of Oblivion

I think the recap is the only part of the chapter I don't take seriously... that and the A/N. I should start, because I bet the recap is like poetry: it needs the best words in the best order. Let me get to it -_-;

**Recap: **_Finally, a friend! Demyx, an oddball by all accounts, takes our abused protagonist under his wing for a too-brief lesson. Obscure references to largely debunked "music theories" are made_—_if only Ciel could understand the Melodious Nocturne's message! [That's the epitome of indirect characterization.] (Un)fortunately, _sans_ explanation, Axel whisks Ciel away. They enter darkness and emerge... where?_

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Herald of Oblivion**

"Stop!" The hoarse yelp tore Ciel's parched throat as she ducked to avoid meeting her end by fire. She flattened herself against the marble floor and rolled, narrowly missing the second volley of attacks. "Axel," she shouted to the laughing figure across the diameter of the circular room, "it's not working...!"

"Oh yeah, buuurn baby!" the red-headed Nobody celebrated, letting out a savagely gleeful whoop. "Let's step it up!"

"_Axel!_" she pleaded uselessly. Her screams may well have been cheers for all Axel cared. He was, as far as Ciel could see, fully enjoying this newest installment of her training and much too dedicated to forcibly manifesting her weapon. If only he cared so much for her well-being.

The besieged girl pushed herself off the floor, the rubber soles of her boots scrabbling frantically against the marble floor. The rest of her regulation uniform didn't make running away any easier. The body-length coat constricted her long legs, and its tight-fitting leather strained to hold back her motion. Each time she fell, skidding and slipping on the ground, tangled black locks stuck damply to her sweaty face, obscuring her view. Run, fall. Run, fall. Run, dive, run. It was, in all honesty, quite a sad sight to behold.

Axel's amusement died quickly. Soon all Ciel could hear were her boots thudding against the floor and the raspy sound of her panting. A brief hope flickered in her wildly palpitating heart: maybe Axel had gotten tired of his firework show at last. They'd been at it for nearly half an hour, and the teacher assigned to her was by no means a patient mentor.

So Ciel wasn't unduly surprised when Axel appeared before her, moving faster than she ever would. What she didn't expect was for him to attack her. The chakrams he'd used to menace Demyx flamed in front of her. She threw out her hands instinctively to avoid kissing the fatal metal with her face, hissing at the hot pain that ate her palms.

There was the _clang!_, the sound of colliding coins amplified a couple hundred times, as something exploded. Momentum threw Ciel back and tumbled her around before she skidded to a stop, sprawled awkwardly on top of something hard. Her ears were filled with nothing more than indistinguishable buzzing. When she opened them, her traumatized eyes reflected fireworks on a black backdrop. When they faded, an upwards glance confirmed yet another humiliation.

Axel stood over her. His pointed face, darkened with soot, seemed unable to decide between a smile and a sneer. He was muttering expletives.

She had to cough, clearing her lungs of the ashes she'd inhaled, before she could speak. "Let's not do that again."

Imitating an exasperated governess perfectly, Axel crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "Of course not," he said shortly. "It worked." Though his face remained static, something in his cold-cut eyes gave the impression that he was struggling with himself. After several seconds of silence, he added robotically, "Good job."

His dispassionate words had an immediate ameliorative effect. Though it still ached painfully, her body no longer felt like it'd been through a meat tenderizer. Her head cleared. Owlishly, Ciel blinked and grinned. "It... worked? Where is it?"

The conflicted expression disappeared, replaced by a familiar haughty smirk. Axel hit his forehead with the heel of his gloved hand and drawled, "Duh—You're _lying_ on it; better hope it's not broken."

Ciel scrambled to her feet, and her earnest eyes fell automatically on the silver scepter gleaming softly against the cracked and blackened marble. The rod was surmounted by the emblem of the Nobodies—the same one that had decorated Demyx's sitar. From the center of the odd, spiked cross, a crimson gem winked at her. The jewel was exactly the same shade as Axel's hair, and she couldn't help but attribute his voice to the innocent ruby. _Hehe_, she imagined it snickering, _I just saved your sorry life_. Her fabricated insults were unwarranted, of course. The jewel twinkled, mischievous and joyous in the otherwise ceremonious scepter. It was neither ornate nor exceptionally beautiful, but like Ciel, the elegant weapon had a particular _je ne sais quoi _in the purity of its aura.

Proud and awed, Ciel lifted the scepter gently, her finger caressing the thin silver as she angled it away from her. It was longer than she was tall. If she stretched out her arms, the tip of the scepter would tickle her forearm just a few centimeters below her wrist. "Wow," she breathed, wide eyes fixed on the ruby. "Axel—thanks."

"Don't get happy just yet," Axel advised. "Now you learn to use it."

"I don't suppose that could wait for tomorrow?"

Axel raised his stick-thin arms, calling up a wall of flames that encircled the pair. The twin chakrams materialized in his open hands. "Get ready, Lexci. It's boot camp on steroids from here on out."

Breathing deeply, she brushed her matted hair out of her face and focused on the shrinking ring of fire. Axel was but a blurred afterimage, impossible to aim for. She tilted the scepter in a random direction and blurted, "Abracadabra!"

The flames flickered and went out. The chakrams dropped, gouging deep gashes into the floor. Axel collapsed, nearly impaling himself on the spikes of his weapon. All of this happened, not because of some potent magic word, but because the Flurry of Dancing Flames' guffawing was proving dangerous for himself. He hadn't gotten around to taunting her for the sole reason that the powerful belly laugh left him no air.

Ciel approached his fallen body cautiously. "Axel?"

When his laughter finally subsided, Axel sat up and wiped the tears from his eyes. He had turned completely serious sometime since recovering himself. "You win, Lexci. I have to teach you to _respect_ your weapon first."

Faced with a familiar lecture, Ciel wrinkled her nose. Her old tutors had loved nothing more than ranting about respect. She knew from experience that such a lecture could not be averted, and she knew which questions made it as bearable as possible. "How should I do that, Axel?"

"Sit down and listen. I know you're not used to our happy little family yet, so you'll just have to accept what I tell you. In this castle... trust no one. Not me, not Demyx, and definitely not Larxene. No one. Got it?"

His angle threw her off. He'd integrated the _trust not_ and _respect always_ lessons. She could only nod to pretend she understood.

"My kick-ass chakrams, Eternal Flames, and Demyx's stupid guitar—"

"Sitar," she corrected. "Demyx said Arpeggio is a sitar."

He shrugged. "Whatever. His Sitar, Archipelago, or whatever it's called—Al Capone, Arpeggio, _whatever_. Sad as it sounds to an outsider like you, I mean, a newcomer like you, weapons are our closest things to friends. That's a scepter you have, not a fairy's wand. You'd better treat it like one." He paused to let that sink in. "Start by calling its name."

She stared at him blankly. "I don't know its name."

"Well, then, ask."

"_Ask?_" she repeated incredulously. "But Axel—" _it's impossible_.

He looked down his narrow nose at her, and she sighed in resignation.

Since her induction into Organization XIII, her perception of impossible had changed greatly. Ciel would have never believed in Nobodies' existence, but "Lexci" was a Nobody nonetheless. Though she knew it'd look and sound childishly foolish to an eavesdropper, Ciel touched a finger against the beguiling inset ruby on the scepter head and murmured. "Hi, er, my name is Ciel. Some people have been calling me Lexci lately, but I don't like that. Well, I guess names matter. So, um, what's your name?"

Nothing.

Then.

Laughter. Peals of laughter.

Axel fell onto his side, shaking with merriment. "You actually did it!" he cackled. "Wait till I tell Roxas. Little Lexci is even _stupider _than Demyx."

Ciel threw her hands into the air. Her pale face went as red as Axel's hair. "_Axel_!"

Once again, he climbed up easily from the distracting laughter. "Sorry. I couldn't resist. Back on topic: what's it called?"

She folded her arms sulkily. "Please, stop making fun of me."

"I'm done, I'm done. Sheesh, no need to be all suspicious." He explained, "You don't need to ask it, stupid. It's yours. You already _know_. So, what's it called?"

Although she desperately wanted secrets to keep from Axel for a change of pace, she answered because her mind was distracted. "Vesper's Wish, I think..."_ But who named it?_ Ciel mused, chewing on her thin lips._ And why does it matter? Do these names have power?_

"Hmm," he hummed. "That's not too bad. It's almost cool."

"Axel, about names... Am I Ciel or Lexci?"

He contemplated her silently. A thousand emotions—_only we don't have any, not according to him—_might have passed through his eyes. "You are Lexci, the Herald of Oblivion."

"That sounds absolutely ridiculous," she laughed.

"Names reflect the person. Kidding, kidding!" he added hastily when Ciel glared at him. "Nah, you're pretty cool... once one gets over that weirdness you've got goin' on. Still an annoying brat, though, don't get me wrong."

"Soooo," she ventured, "can we be friends?"

"Friends? Did you even listen to a word I said? Weapons are the closest things to friends we have. Got it memorized? No, of course you don't," he answered himself quickly. "Get it memorized."

"I thought you were joking, but—"Ciel dropped her gaze—"But aren't you and Roxas friends? And what about Demyx?"

Axel frowned at her and got to his feet. "Too many questions. We'll get back to that later."

"And later means never, right?"

He grinned, confirming her suspicion. "We'll see. Now get up. We're behind schedule thanks to you."

"Thanks to _me_? It's not my fault you like lecturing so much."

"Don't argue with me; fight me. Let's see what our boss was thinking when he pulled you into this."

"'Yum, fresh meat,'" Ciel muttered under her breath, wincing with the pain of standing up. She hurt worse than when she'd first begun horseback riding, and she knew from experience that the pain would only intensify tomorrow. Worse yet, Axel expected her to continue. And their boss, the Superior... No, Ciel didn't want her mind to wander anywhere near him. She raised Vesper's Wish and waited for Axel to attack, worrying about how long it would take to grasp the basics of her new weapon.

* * *

It was past midnight when Axel finally freed Ciel from their hellish training with a dissatisfied grunt at her progress. She was, he complained, effectively a _special needs_ student. She was, he contended, a thousand times slower than even Demyx. But she would, under his unparalleled tutelage, grow exponentially until the Superior saw fit to release Axel from his troublesome duty.

Ciel barely heard his grumbling. Rest was needed.

Ciel's lumpy mattress felt like the most luxurious feather bed when she dragged her drooping body back to the drab bedroom. Mentally and physically, the teenage girl was entirely spent. There wasn't a single calorie left in her. Even if confronted by an ant, she would have had neither the energy nor the heart to squash it. And so it was quite understandable that she fell into a deep, if not particularly peaceful, sleep. Her body recovered slowly during what was left of the night, even as her mind plunged into the tumultuous world of white static and dark illusions.

* * *

**Quarks and Advocates** (Yes, I'm just using the first two Q/A words that come to mind...)

Axel was eavesdropping on Demyx and Ciel?

Well, he could have been coincidentally walking past Demyx's room, and Demyx could have known that Axel was walking past at exactly that time. Or maybe Demyx just has an exceptionally loud voice and Axel unprecedented good hearing. _Or maybe he was eavesdropping?_ Essentially, yes. ;) Stay tuned for more on that later! (Later =/= never :])

Music minor/major/key/chord/waaaah?

Lexci's not music-savvy either. Neither am I, for that matter. What needs to be known will be made known at (hopefully) the right time. On the other hand, I'm never one to discourage the pursuit of knowledge, so feel free to google to your hearts content. :)  
The Organization member's respective keys are, of course, my interpretation. There will be discrepancies. They will not be significant to the story. If Ciel were Demyx, though, it might be. But Ciel is Ciel. Or is she Lexci?  
Sorry, I got carried away. Cue rant.

**Rant/Oh-My-God-I-Can-Go-On-Forever**

Axel, oh Axel... You do seem slightly OOC here. Then again, you are OOC each time you change company, you know? This way with this person, that way with that person...  
"_Hard to read, half the time Axel seems to just be messing around... but for all we know, he's done more thinking than everyone else put together._" - KH: CoM  
So true. Dear, mysterious Axel. I do love you so. No wonder you've been around so much.

Anyways, guys, thanks for reading! And for sub-ing [alerting...?], reviewing, fav-ing, and all that jazz :) Each time I get a notification, it seriously brightens up my day a thousandfold. Lame, aren't I? Speaking of which...  
Quick and Painless Grammar Lesson: As you all know, "ain't I" is entirely improper English."Aren't I" is similarly incorrect, but it's heard much more often. The correct form is "am I not," but that just sounds stuffy and stuck-up, doesn't it? XD  
Quick? Painless? Good :] (or bad, depending XD;)

Just leave any other questions in a review or message me. I'm always open to suggestions! Especially since you could spot an escaped plot hole, and I love feedback of all forms.  
Remember: Comments? Concerns? Contribute!


	5. Heaven

Title change! Yup!  
Because I thought of it, and I thought it sounded cool. ...And less like a rip off William Blake, although it still is, essentially... Lemme know what you think of it?

**Recap:** _After trials and tribulations, poor Ciel gets a break and does something right. Thanks to Axel's violent method of training, she gains a gorgeous, fascinating, mysterious weapon and a foreboding, fascinating, mysterious new name_—_again. Vesper's Wish and the Herald of Oblivion. Names that are, as the red porcupine puts it, "sort of cool," and Ciel has to agree. Are things finally starting to look up for this abused character, or will things take a turn for the worse?  
_

* * *

**Chapter 5: Heaven**

Ciel watched the two friends with wide, curious eyes. They sat cross-legged on opposite sides of a low table piled high with what looked like counterfeit coins. On Axel's side, his "chips" sat in three columns of seven. A single blue chip occupied Roxas' side. Each glared at the other over a fan of sharp-edged playing cards as though they could see through the plastic, silently evaluating their foes.

"Let's up the ante," Axel challenged with a daring grin, pushing one of his columns toward the pot in the center.

Roxas glanced at his cards, then at the solitary plastic chip in his possesion. With an inscrutable expression, he flipped his last chip into the pile and laid his cards on the table.

Axel followed suit, spreading his hand out, so they could all see.

Ciel craned her neck, examining first Roxas' and then Axel's. The blond had three sevens—red diamonds, black three leaf clovers, and odd black hearts—a red diamond A, and a crowned, bearded man of the odd, upside down heart. His opponent had unveiled five consecutive numbers, five through eight of red diamonds and a nine with a red heart.

Letting out a victorious whoop, Axel scooped the chips toward himself with a long arm. "So this month's record stands at 10-3, Axel," he commentated loudly. "The hottest wins the day. Oh, burn!"

"Shut up, man," Roxas retorted, tossing his cards into Axel's grinning face. "I just have bad luck."

"Cheer up, buddy. Maybe you'll win against an amateur." He pointed at Ciel with a bony finger, crooking it to indicate she should join their merriment, and started shuffling the cards.

Roxas flicked his cold blue eyes at her, then quickly away. It was more attention than he'd given her in the hour and a half she'd been sitting with them. After the incident in the hallway, the youngest Nobody seemed to have decided that ignoring her was the best policy. "Whatever, he mumbled, dividing the chips into three even stacks.

Axel dealt the cards in a counterclockwise circle, starting with himself. He clicked his tongue for each card, fifteen clicks. But the number of annoying clicks didn't equal the number of cards.

"Wait," she said, catching Axel's slim wrist as he was about to pick up his cards. "You made a mistake, Axel. You gave yourself seven cards."

Roxas, who had already begun studying his hand, threw it down. His cards, crappy even by his standards with only a pair, scattered across the table. "Cheater," he accused, grabbing his friend's neat pile of cards and counting out seven cards. "No wonder you kept winning!"

"Caught me," Axel admitted, flourishing his hands and producing a winning hand from sleeves so tight that Ciel wouldn't have assumed anything could fit without creating a noticeable bulge. "To repent, I'll treat you to ice cream."

"With the money you conned me out of," Roxas asserted as he cleaned up. He didn't sound the least bit bitter, only exasperated.

"What else?"

Ciel only sat there, unsure of what to do with herself. "So, what do you guys play?" Ciel finally thought to ask. "Hearts?"

They looked at her after exchanging an easily readable look that said, _What an idiot.._. "Poker," Roxas explained, as though it were the obvious answer. What else would a pair of bachelors play?

"Joke," she said, laughing alone. "We don't have hearts, get it?"

Axel scoffed. "Don't tell it again. And work on your lame sense of humor. C'mon. Let's go."

Ciel watched them go. When they had reached the door, Axel turned back. He looked annoyed, furrowing his odd eyebrows, to see here still kneeling there. "Come _on_, girl," he ordered pointedly, rolling his eyes. "I'm gettin' tired of waiting."

She flinched in surprise, and a huge smile ate up her face. As she scrambled to her feet, nearly tripping on the hem of her standard Organization coat, she noticed Roxas lean towards Axel and grumble something she couldn't hear.

Axel gave a little shrug in response. To Ciel he said, "Open a Corridor. Let's see if you've improved."

* * *

Sitting hundreds of feet in the air on a narrow ledge where she could easily fall to her death, Ciel was too awed by the beautiful mélange of purples, pinks, and reds painting the horizon to be remotely afraid. Her dark eyes, naturally large, grew wider by the second. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen such beauty. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time she'd seen the light of day.

"It's dripping," Axel told her dryly, nudging her hand so the light blue drops fell past the edge instead of into her lap. "What're you gaping for? You a kiddie, huh?"

Ciel ignored him. She couldn't bear to take her eyes off of the sunset's preternatural loveliness. _I'm outside..._ was all she could think. How long had it been? Her every memory of looking up revealed only black emptiness and white ceiling, never this elusive shade of sunset or the pale blue she knew the sky to be.

"Earth to Lexci," Axel said in a whimsical sing-song voice, snapping his fingers in front of her face. "Come in, Lexci."

"Hey, the ice cream's going to waste," Roxas observed. "Pass it, Axel?"

The wooden stick, now soggy from the melted sea salt ice cream, was pried from her numb fingers.

"Heaven in a convenient travel size," the boy said happily, shoving the cold confection into his blue-stained mouth.

Axel groaned. "So I'm the only one left on Earth."

His complaint was Ciel's cue to pull her mind away from the sky's hypnotizing beauty. She turned, peering around Axel to see Roxas munching happily away on the ice cream she hadn't even tasted. _Oh, well. As long as someone's enjoying it._ The view was the real treat for Ciel.

"Where is this?" she asked reverently, waving her small hand in an arc that encompassed the ethereal sky and the sprawled buildings below.

"It's called Twilight Town. On account of its perpetual twilit sky," he added. "Where we're sitting is the Clock Tower, the highest point in this world."

"'In this world,'" she echoed with the beginnings of a grin on her face. "What, are there others?"

"No, of _course_ not, there's only one," the fiery-haired Axel smirked. "Hell, Lexci, there're hundreds, maybe thousands. Don't you know that, at least?"

For a moment, the girl was tempted to laugh. Then, she realized his taunting expression meant he was completely serious. The breeze that had been so gently ruffling her long black hair turned cold. Her mouth fell open. Hoarsely, because her throat was too stunned to cooperate, she whispered, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I never thought you were so undereducated—Oh. Well," he said scathingly, "what did you think? Didn't you realize these places are different from whatever world you came from?"

"Yes, but—" A more important question nagged at her. "Axel, how did we _get_ here?"

"Corridor of Darkness. Take you just 'bout anywhere, but be careful. Some people"—he angled his head at the tousle-haired blond on his other side him—"get all pissy when you show up unannounced."

Around his late mouthful of sea salt ice cream, Roxas managed to articulate, "I like my privacy. So sue me."

"Nah, forget it. I don't have the money for a lawyer."

They both laughed at Axel's joke and his deadpan delivery.

Belatedly, Ciel joined them with a chuckle.

At the sound, Roxas' head whipped around. He stared for a long minute and frowned, then pulled his hood up.

Ciel tilted her head, trying to see beneath the shadows that fell over his eyes. "Is something the matter?" she said hesitantly.

Roxas' muscles tensed, as though her voice had electrocuted him. Suddenly, he stood and declared, "I have to go. Axel, tomorrow."

Axel nodded, watching his friend with his sharp, clever eyes. "Tomorrow," he agreed.

Without another word of explanation, Roxas waved his hand and melded into the dark oval he'd called into being.

"What did I do this time?" Ciel demanded of Axel as the Corridor imploded and left the sky the serene blend of orange and purple.

Axel raised and lowered one small shoulder. "I already told you."

"That thing about Demyx? I don't get it! I don't understand anything at all," she complained, unable to keep herself from whining like a spoiled brat. She fisted her hands to keep them from shaking from—who knew what. And in her hands, her weapon materialized involuntarily, creating a blinding white flash that couldn't have been the reflection of the weak light.

"Whoa...!" Axel exclaimed, jumping to his feet to keep from being impaled by the sharpened silver rod, which passed between his ankles. "Keep a handle on that thing. I don't wanna become a girl, you know!"

Turning pink, Ciel patted the silver scepter, letting the metal's gentle touch cool her agitation. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"I know it's hard to control when you're young, but _hell_—did you see how close that thing came to my... never mind. Let's not go there."

Ciel concentrated on erasing Vesper's Wish in her mind, conjuring an image of her surroundings exactly as they were without the weapon the way Axel had taught her. She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. Finally, she felt the scepter slip away from her consciousness, and her hands closed around thin air. Opening her eyes, Ciel fixed her only friend with a blank look. "Sorry? Where are we going?"

"I swear, this girl does it on purpose," he told the clock face behind her, shaking his head slowly. To Ciel, he said, "We're headin' back. You've got a mission tomorrow, so rest up. I've got a good rep knocking you n00bs into working shape, so don't you dare screw up. No, better idea: mess up royally. Then they'll never stick me with an idiot again."

The black-haired girl giggled and conjured another black entrance to the Corridor of Darkness, acting as naturally as if she'd had the ability since birth. "Sure thing, Axel."

He continued, "I'll go fetch you in the morning. Don't leave your room. And definitely don't let anyone else into your room. Got it?"

"Got it," she promised. "I've got I memorized."

Axel stood back to let her pass through the Corridor first. Under his sea-salt breath, he muttered, "I doubt it."

* * *

**My question for you**

...Is Axel being too nice? Too understanding? Too friendly? ._. Ahhh, Axel, you kill me...! Dear readers, help..!**  
**

**Quasi and Army**

Does Ciel have an element?  
Of course, she does! What is it? Read and find out :) (I'm terrible...) Or better yet, **take a guess** and tell me what you think!

**Transition to A/N (Or lack thereof...)**

Roxaaas, you're finally back...! -squeals like fangirl- But, sheesh, what's with the attitude problem, blondie? Poor Ciel is only trying to be his friend... Jerkface :D  
Guys, I'm incredibly sorry that I took so long to update, and it's a Monday, meaning many people probably won't have time to read or review... but I love you if you do :)


	6. Rising Action

**Recap:** _Ciel appears to be getting along better with her fellows to the point that they let her outside. Her shortlived freedom meets its end with a scary thought: Ciel's got a mission. _

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 6: Rising Action**

The dull, hollow sound of a loose fist thumping against a closed door beat incessantly on Ciel's eardrums, growing louder and more annoying when she tried to ignore it. With the futile mentality of student whining for five more minutes, Ciel rolled over in bed, tugged the fluffy pillow over her head, and pulled the blankets more comfortably around her curled body. She squeezed her eyes shut and wished she could do the same with her ears.

Eventually, the knocking grew too terrible to ignore, forcing Ciel out of bed and to the door. She moved with the awkward, jerky motions of a long-limbed girl who would one day be graceful but was just lanky for the time being. Ciel yawned hugely before she eased the door open.

Demyx stood in the hallway, his hand still raised. He hit the door one last time, obviously unwilling to waste the monumental energy it'd taken to lift his fist. Unlike Ciel, the tall blond seemed entirely awake. Demyx's Carolina blue eyes were so bright they positively twinkled. Even his hair, the majority of which was gelled into short spikes, was too perky for the hour.

Ciel did her best to appear more alert. "What's up?" she rasped, rubbing her hands over her face groggily.

"G'morning!" Demyx chirped cheerily. "Rest good?"

Holding back another yawn that threatened to split her head in two, Ciel answered, "Yes, but not long enough. Axel said..." The words _To sleep well _died on her too-dry tongue when his other order popped into her mind.

To let no one in.

But surely, Ciel contemplated, that didn't apply to the young man standing in front of her. It was to prevent psychopaths like Larxene and the enigmatic Superior from harming her. Demyx had been so kind to her, and he'd never had the slightest hint of the creepy aura she'd felt from the dangerous ones.

While the perplexed girl debated between rudely slamming the door in Demyx's happy face and disobediently inviting her potential friend in, Demyx resolved her dilemma by emitting a squeal that resembled a stuck piglet's and hopping away from the open door.

"Yyyowch!" he howled, bouncing on the balls of his feet in pain and turning in circles. He slapped hysterically at his backside, which smoked ominously. "Axel!" he yelped. "Not cool!"

Ciel poked her head cautiously around the threshold and looked both ways down the hallway.

Leaning against the wall where the hall turned a corner, Axel shaped his fingers into a gun and blew out a short puff of air to disperse the imaginary smoke. When he'd completed this suave pantomime to his satisfaction, he sauntered up to them.

Demyx sidled away. His lower lip was stuck out so far in a pout that the world's worst fisherman could have easily hooked him. "Axel," he said in what he evidently thought was a firm and authoritative voice, "we talked about you doing that."

"And we agreed that I'd burn your stinky bum whenever it annoys me," Axel told his counterpart in what was most certainly a menacing purr. "And it's doin' just that now, so get lost. This girl sticks around you and you'll infect her with your uselessness."

"That is _not_ a nice thing to say," Demxy complained as he limped away. "And my butt hurts," he called to them as he disappeared around the corner.

Axel dismissed the blond with his middle finger. Then, he turned his attention to Ciel, who gulped.

"Hi, Axel. Were you on your way to get me?"

"Hi, Ciel. Good to see Demyx the Idiot was your alarm clock."

"Um," said Ciel.

Axel planted his hands on his narrow hips, almost smiling. "And I don't care if you throw your lot in with a scapegoat like Demyx, but I'll tell you this much: a fucking weak alliance won't help you get what you want."

Ciel stared into Axel's serious gemstone eyes. They revealed nothing. As usual, his hints went far over her head. "He seems nice," she said quietly.

"Yeah, and that's what exactly what we look for in a friend," Axel enthused so overdramatically that even Ciel couldn't miss the sarcasm. "Cut the crap and get dressed."

"Okay, Axel."

A spasm crossed his face. He opened his mouth, probably to deliver a disparaging comment, but changed his mind and shut it almost immediately. Turning away and closing the door, Axel said, "Just don't keep me waitin' all day."

Axel led her down a series of identical corridors whose dizzying layout soon had Ciel completely disoriented. The Castle that Never Was seemed impossible large, and Ciel knew she'd never be able to find her way around without a guide. If ever Axel resumed his original duties, whatever they may have been, she'd be hopelessly lost.

The red-haired Nobody, with his much longer stride, easily out-paced her, so Ciel ended up taking two or three steps for his one just to keep up. She looked like an eager little puppy, but she wasn't willing to let Axel get too far ahead. Who knew? With her luck, the castle probably had moving chambers in addition to uniform corridors.

But as Axel shifted from his leisurely pace to a fast walk, Ciel's legs slowed. They grew heavier each difficult step she took until Axel stopped in front of a door that looked quite normal. Then, her legs turned to jelly and gave out, dumping her onto her butt. "Oof," she said.

Axel paused in the motion of banging on the door and sighed to see her on the ground. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but what are you doing?"

The door swung inwards before she could respond, and two hooded Nobodies emerged. The first was the Superior, the one who had renamed her, immediately recognizable by the pressure of sheer emptiness that flowed around him. The second, a stranger at least a head and shoulders taller than her, nodded curtly in Axel's direction.

The Superior's soundless boots brought him to only a few paces from Ciel. His neck bent slowly until the dark plane oval under his hood was parallel to her uplifted face. "Lexci," he rumbled in his deep voice, which now throbbed with insincere emotion. "What a momentous day indeed when the youngest bearer of the cloth has come to receive the First Assignment." He spread his arms wide ceremoniously, leaned down, and grasped her upper arms.

Ciel shuddered. His touch was neither cold nor hot; it was simply _there_, oppressively and undeniably there. There was some intrinsic otherworldly quality to his demeanor, his entire being, that exuded a sense of non-belonging.

_Nobodies are nothing_.

Axel's portentous words floated into her mind. Were they true? And if so, how could nothing ever hope to become something—anything? He was nothing; she was nothing. They were ghosts in the corporeal dimension.

But the fingers that closed around her biceps were as solid as metal rods, squeezing flesh and bone as the Superior forced her to stand on legs that were a foundation about as stable as a house of cards'.

He spoke again, just as grandiloquently. "You will indeed become a fine foil."

After intoning these cryptic words, the Superior let Ciel crumple to the floor. He spared them not another glance and slipped back into the room, sweeping the dolorous atmosphere away with him.

Undisturbed, Axel addressed the other as soon as the Superior had gone. "Let's hear it, Saix."

"Tell the girl to go to the Key of Destiny. He has already been briefed regarding their mission in the closed worlds," Saix told him. He sounded bored. Or simply uncaring. Unfeeling.

The bold words _Tell me yourself_, which had been on their way out of her mouth, ran back down her throat. They went down like a slimy frog. She gulped.

Axel winked at her. With the air of a comedian beginning a new joke, he said, "Stop me if I'm wrong, but a closed world is... _closed_ to the Heartless."

"You are correct."

Axel's green eyes slid to her, no longer playful, then back to the hooded man. He ran his fingers through his hair, starting at the base of his neck and working towards his forehead. The motion teased his spiked hair and made his head look like a bristling ginger cat.

Saix folded his arms. He shifted to a disciplined feet-shoulder-width-apart and back-arrow-straight kind of stance.

Ciel looked on intently. She had the feeling that she was eavesdropping on some deep, telepathic negotiation.

Then with a sigh, Axel held his arms up in a "whatever" motion. "Your call," he allowed.

Concluding their incomprehensible conversation, Saix replied, "Right again." As he withdrew, he afforded Ciel a cursory once over. If he'd had an expression, she was certain it would have shown disapproval.

After the door closed, Axel smirked at her. "Haven't you sat for long enough? Did walking up here take that much of your energy?"

She grimaced at him but stood up without wobbling. Her legs were only tingling now whereas before, they hadn't even felt connected to her body. "I can walk," she announced.

"That's great to know," Axel said without enthusiasm. "Then walk your little self up to Roxas' room and tell him to get into mission mode."

"I don't know where Roxas' room is."

"Just follow me, your tour guide for The Castle that Never Was," he quipped, leading her once again. "As we leave, on your right, you'll see a wall. Down this hallways are the stairs. Hold onto the railing as we go down. Now, two lefts make a right and take us to Roxas' chambers. His door is open, so just head inside. Good luck."

He was going to leave her there. Ciel understood that much. She latched onto Axel's elbow as he tried to walk past her. "Wait—" she began.

"Grow up, girl." He planted his hand firmly against her back and gave her a light shove.

She shot him a glare over her shoulder but let him push her through the threshold.

Roxas' room was nearly identical to hers, just as unnecessarily spacious with only a bed and desk against the white-washed walls. There was a small window above the desk, but it may have been a slab of obsidian. Next to the desk, Roxas stood fully outfitted. His face was hidden, but his voice scowled when he accused, "You're late."

"Oh. Sorry." She searched for something to say, wishing Axel had stayed. Self-consciously, she lifted a hand to the slick material resting around her shoulders. She hadn't felt odd exposing her face to the hooded Nobodies before. Now she did.

Prompted by her action, Roxas gripped the edges of his hood. He tugged his hood further to ensure that the mask-like darkness missed not a centimeter of his skin.

"You weren't hiding your face yesterday," Ciel remembered suddenly. "Even when we went off-world." She hadn't even noticed it then; the openness had been so natural.

"So what? I wear my hood when I want," Roxas said brusquely.

She blinked. His unfriendliness didn't come as a surprise, not after their last few encounters, which he'd cut short by exiting like a cat, but she found herself floundering in his presence all the same. With the finesse of a child, she changed the subject. "What is our mission?"

"Didn't you see Saix?" Without waiting for an answer, Roxas continued, "We're going to hunt the Heartless."

"Oh," said Ciel, blank. "But aren't we... heartless? Are we going to look for other Nobodies? I'm sorry... I don't understand."

Roxas replied with a sigh. He sounded more exasperated than annoyed. "I forgot what it was like, being new," he said. It was almost an apology, one begrudged and barely implied. "Ask Axel to explain later. For now, let's just get this over with."

Ciel tried for a confident grin to complement his tone, but her lips barely twitched.

Roxas ignored this and opened a Corridor of Darkness with a discreet hand gesture. "Just copy what I do, I guess," he suggested, walking into the portal.

She trailed a few steps behind him. She'd never tried to travel through a Corridor without knowing her destination, and chasing Roxas' faint presence was like blindly reaching for the bathroom door at night. He moved swiftly toward a pinprick of light that could have been the brightest star in the night sky. How was it possible for light to exist in an environment of absolute darkness. But no sooner had this thought entered her head, its glow expanded to fill her vision. The harsh flash erased all but Roxas' silhouette, which lingered a moment longer and beckoned. Ciel shut her watering eyes and braced herself for the jarring transition to an unknown world.

* * *

Hey! Good guesses for Ciel's element. You'll have to see, but feel free to guess until them :)

**Quadrilateral and Asparagus**

A big question this time (at least for me, because I have an intense desire to stick as close to canon as possible in some things...) Can you tell whenish this takes place? The KH timeline is so complicated and interconnected that I hope I get everything right, but let me know how I'm doing, please!

**Ramble Ramble**

Let me just tell you now that I love you so much that I'm updating the day before senior ball. If you're not averse to reading about my personal life (or what passes for one...) read on. Otherwise... I thank you for the wonderful comments you leave that make my day that much brighter! Keep the questions coming, if there are any :)  
Anyways, I'm hoping ball will be fun because I hear the food's supposed to be delicious and the after party should be even better. If only the love interest hadn't had a previous engagement... Sheesh, high school...


	7. Corrupted Hearts

**Recap:** _Soon after Ciel is coerced into the ranks of Organization XIII, which has somehow kept its original name despite her addition, she receives a mission assignment that brings an end to our six chapter exposition. But the real kicker is this: untrustworthy on a solo mission, They have left her to the mysterious Roxas. He's less than ecstatic, and she's simply confused, but maybe their mission will work out all right. Yeah, right. Who am I kidding?_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 7: Corrupted Hearts**

Ciel's eyelids fluttered. She swayed with a dizzying sense of exhilaration and the world tilted. She'd stepped into darkness and had somehow fallen into the gentle embrace of light. But when Ciel opened her eyes, expecting to see a partly cloudy, soft blue sky, her vision focused instead on a scaly black night sky that seemed no further from her eyes than her nose. _Oh... gosh... _she thought, closing her eyes briefly.

Then, she heard Roxas' voice hiss, "Will you—please—get a grip?"

The first thing she noticed that the ground rumbled, resonating with his words. It freaked her out a little. Until she realized that the "ground" was warm and alive because it wasn't the ground at all; she'd fallen into Roxas.

Ciel's eyes snapped open. With a hasty, "Sorry!", she pushed away from him, freeing herself from the hands that she hadn't even noticed were on her bony shoulders like clamps. She didn't fall, which would have been humiliating, but she did knock him off balance.

Roxas stumbled, but he recovered quickly—much more quickly than she would have—and disguised the awkward motion as a simple step back. He shrugged stiffly. "Whatever." And lest she think too kindly of him, the blond added, "I won't catch you again."

Ciel ran her small hands down the skin-tight coat, smoothing out wrinkles that barely existed. It was a delay tactic while she tried to come up with something to say. "Thanks anyways," she said, too late.

He only huffed, "Heavy for your size."

Her thin lips inched their way to a smile. It was hard, Ciel thought, studying his tensed straight-backed stance, to understand him. Which only made him like all other Nobodies.

Roxas moved his head in a sweeping motion that centered on her black eyes for maybe half a second. Determinedly not looking at her face, he said, "Put up your hood. We aren't in friendly territory."

Despite the danger to her neatly combed hair, Ciel complied without complaint. Once the hood was up, she raised her fingertips to the pale skin of her cheek. She'd half expected a dense curtain of darkness to block them.

He sighed. Who knew why? Who knew anything?

Everyone besides her, it seemed.

"Where are we?" Ciel asked, remembering her original concern. She glanced around her in all directions.

They were in a deserted plaza walled in by a second level. On the lower level, where they stood, all was grey. The only exception was a fountain that sparkled with frigid water. Buildings stood a few meters back from the edge on the second level. They didn't look ransacked or destroyed. Just old, like they'd been left to fall down.

_But there are lights on_.

Though the windows were dark and a few were boarded up, street lamps burned at regular intervals around the square, some bright, some dim. Of course, there had to be lights, or she wouldn't have been able to see the dying buildings so clearly in the starry, moonless night.

She turned back to Roxas, who hadn't answered, hoping he knew more than she did. "Roxas?"

Roxas started and pulled a small white card out of his pocket. He held it up in front of her face, probably unwilling to waste his words on her idiotic questions.

The card was hardly detailed, reading only a few words:

_XIII XIV  
Traverse Town_

XIV—fourteen—that was her. So thirteen must have been Roxas. Did that make him weak? Or new? She'd never asked Axel what the numbers were based on, but in any case, that didn't really matter.

"Traverse Town?"

Roxas let the paper fall. "As you see," he said in a tone that was the vocal equivalent of rolling one's eyes

"Pick that up, young man!" a scandalized voice exclaimed from behind them.

They both whirled.

The voice belonged to a youngish/oldish, shortish/tallish girl who had appeared next to the small fountain. She was slender, her lean and wiry figure exaggerated by a pair of sleek black pants and a short white tank top whose bottom looked like it had been torn off, exposing a sliver of skin. Her eyes were light brown and glittering. As she stalked toward them, strands of cropped ebony hair fell over her eyes.

"Don't move," Roxas commanded. He held his arms away from his sides, and with twin flashes, intricate weapons materialized in his hands, one an iridescent white and one liquid black.

His offensive action made Ciel remember her own weapon, and she called her scepter out just as the stranger froze.

She—not Ciel—laughed, causing Roxas to tense, but the sincere sound calmed Ciel. "I'm sorry if I surprised you," she apologized, not moving from her position a few meters from them, "I mean no harm. On the contrary, I am here to wait for and to welcome you. My name is Estelle. And you are?"

"Ci—"

Roxas cut across her words and raised the vaguely key-shaped blades. "Not convinced," he said shortly and with obvious hostility.

Estelle only chuckled, as if this all amused her. "Not very trusting, are you? He could take a leaf out of your book."

There was a pause.

Ciel was sure neither she nor Roxas understood the comment.

"Who are you?" Roxas demanded to know.

The girl, who looked only a few years older than them, arched her finely sculpted eyebrows. "I did say. I'm Estelle. And will you tell me your names? It can't hurt, can it?"

"My name is Roxas," the young man said truculently.

"Ciel," Ciel said, once again taking her cue from his actions.

"Excellent," Estelle said breezily. "And you two are right on time."

Roxas said nothing, refusing to take the bait. She could sense his curiosity, though. It made her grin. Estelle's red lips parted to reveal white, slightly crooked teeth. Roxas gripped his weapons ever more tightly. Ciel heard his leather gloves creak under the strain. His knuckles would be bleached white.

It was she who finally queried, "On time for what?"

The grin became a smile. "On time in the sense that your arrival will begin the show, and I was conveniently on my way to the First District when you chose to come." Though the tone was pleasant, Estelle's words hung ominously in the air.

Roxas became, if possible, even tenser. He spread his feet further, lowered himself into a position that could be used both to defend and attack. He'd been in ready position forever, now; he had to be getting sore.

Feeling guilty for her lack of caution, Ciel sent a cursory glance around the plaza. Nothing was different from earlier. "What show?" she wondered.

"I didn't say the show would open immediately, did I? No, we have some time to get acquainted first. Will you come with me?"

The request was, apparently, what Roxas had been expecting, his rejection came so quickly. "Get over yourself. I'm not going anywhere until you answer a few questions."

She shrugged, tilting her head at the same time. The feathery tips of her hair brushed against her freckled shoulder. "Fair enough. Please, ask away."

"First question: Who the hell are you?"

Estelle chirped, "Asked and answered. Is there anything else you would like to know?"

"Yeah—What do you want?"

The brunette made a show of thinking, rubbing her chin with her thumb and pointer finger. She hummed. "So many things. A cabin by the beach, a hot-bodied lover, chocolates—"

Roxas' growl cut off Estelle's lighthearted response. He started forward and lifted a hand, though whether to shake a fist at the sky, wave his blade in frustration, or actually attack the impudent stranger was something Ciel didn't know. But she wasn't willing to take the chance.

Moving faster than she'd have thought possible, Ciel caught his hand from behind. Her fingers caged his wrist. She could feel his aggravated pulse.

He twisted his head to look at her.

Again, she felt a jolt at those cobalt blue eyes, but she stood her ground. "Please, stay calm." She barely mouthed the words, unwilling to let Estelle overhear.

"Whatever," Roxas grunted. "You talk to her, then." He let his weapons fade away and pried her cold fingers from his wrist. Then, he folded his arms and took a few steps back to observe the whole scene, looking inscrutable. More likely, he was just sulking.

Ciel walked slowly to the other girl's side. When she wasn't careful, the pointed tip of Vesper's Wish clicked against the cobblestone ground. "I'm sorry about the misunderstanding," she said.

"Is something the matter with him?" Estelle asked, indicating Roxas.

A tough question. She hesitated. "I think he doesn't like being toyed with."

"And you don't mind it?" The teasing voice was back. "No, is it because you are more level-headed? Or are men simply rash?"

"I... don't know." She took a deep breath, feeling a strange, tugging sensation in her chest. Her vision swam, then steadied. And the first thing her black eyes focused on was the shadowy pool feet from her and the _thing_ slithering out of it.

Roxas yelled something incomprehensible; he must have seen it, too—or maybe he was more concerned with the dozen others that had appeared at speed.

Was it humanoid? The closest animal she could compare it to was an ant, with odd antennae that drooped almost like broken rabbit ears. But the size was wrong, closer to a small dog. And no dog had ever stood on clown feet brandishing three-fingered hands that were almost claws. And no dog, no ant, no animal had ever drank up the light like a hungry black hole, the way these things did.

"What's going on?" Her frightened gaze was fixed on the yellow-eyed creature.

"There isn't time for that. It looks as if the Heartless have caught... Ciel, watch out!"

Ciel jumped to obey the warning, and her fingers wrapped tightly around the shaft of the gleaming scepter. She turned not a moment too soon—a dark shadow lunged for her, its golden eyes feral with hunger. She didn't pause to think before jumping aside, slashing viciously at the thing that had been reaching out for her with spidery claws.

The creature of darkness released a high-pitched hiss and fell, landing on its back and bursting into smoke. A heart, luminescent purple in the night, drifted lazily up to the sky. It joined the freed hearts of four others that Roxas had dispatched with little effort, simple slicing through them.

There was no time to celebrate her first kill. The felled creature was only one out of the many that had attacked. Three went for her at once, and Ciel acted on survival instincts, pure and simple, as she brought the other end of the scepter whipping around to smash the little things into the air. Unaware of the unruly hair caught in her open mouth, she leapt after the creatures.

Two, she sliced through neatly, impaling them on the scepter's clean point. They screamed weakly and vanished, leaving behind the same painfully lovely hearts that captured her attention.

The lucky one that had escaped Vesper's Wish landed on all fours and immediately launched itself at the distracted girl.

Ciel saw it coming out of the corner of her eye, but by then, her feet had hit the ground awkwardly, throwing her to her knees. She cried out, releasing her weapon and throwing up her arms to protect her face as the shadow's claws filled her vision.

The carmine bead embedded in the scepter's head blazed, blinding them all with a flash.

No. It was the opposite.

For a brief, terrifying moment, the world went dark—as in, completely dark, pitch black. There was no ground, no sky, no air, no monsters, no Roxas. Nothing but darkness and Ciel, engulfed in shadows.

Then a ghostly blue image as insubstantial as smoke flared up before her. It was rectangular, the height of her upper body, with a center of darkness.

_Keyhole_, Ciel though hazily, looking at the shape. An emotion she couldn't describe, shouldn't even have had, shifted so deep within her that it could have been outside her. Involuntarily, she extended her arms towards it as though in a trance. She was shivering as the scepter's reflective sphere, so bathed in the bluish light that the Nobody insignia was barely visible, touched the keyhole.

"No! Stop!" Estelle's voice, made all but unrecognizable by terror and fury, suddenly cried out from behind Ciel.

Ciel jumped to her feet and twisted around toward the voice. As her head turned, the elegant dark world blurred and faded into the damp cobbled streets of Traverse Town.

"Do you have any idea what you have _done_?" the young woman shrieked, advancing on Ciel. Her cool façade had shattered. Her face was twisted. "Are you a fool!"

"What?" Ciel took a step back. She hefted Vesper's Wish in defense... and froze.

They were slithering out of the ground that had transformed into nothing more than a pool of teeming shadows. Hundreds, thousands of things a million times worse than creepy-crawlies, creeping and crawling in an indistinguishable mass of darkness.

"Oh, no," Ciel breathed.

Estelle leapt into action, throwing her arm high into the air and shouting again and again, "Fira!"

Flaming balls crashed into the crowd of shadows, burning and crushing them. They scattered away from the hated light and heat. Some targeted their victims; some simply fell over each other.

Too many charged at her, swallowing the original attacker into their midst.

Motivated by only her reflexes, Ciel hacked at them, cut them down one after another, swinging her beautiful scepter like a crude axe. Her arms lifted and fell unceasingly, but their numbers never diminished. The all-consuming desire to live had erased every intelligent thought, every cunning trick she'd learned from Axel, from her mind. Her blows came mechanically, one after another. One after another.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of fighting, Estelle, her throat scorched by the smoke, rasped, "Stun."

Someone grabbed her under the arms. Looking back, it could only have been Estelle, but Ciel's muddled brain couldn't register that fact. Whoever it was hauled her across the street with no regard for her comfort and pushed her toward a scarred door. "Come this way," Estelle ordered, screaming loudly enough for Roxas to hear over the sounds of battle and predatory growls.

Roxas executed a graceful aerial flip, slashing one of the shadow creatures in half. His twin blades blurred in the air, but his strength and skill were no match for the sheer number of shadows that seemed to grow exponentially. He destroyed the three poised to attack him, but the others were an entire ocean of dark danger. Roxas was forced to give up. Cutting a path for himself through the shadows, he fought his way to Ciel and Estelle. "I don't trust you," he said to the latter, pushing the words through harsh breathing.

"You don't have to," she coughed, yanking open the door. With frantic roughness, she yanked them through the threshold and slammed it in the mindless faces of the creatures. "Let go of your Keyblades," she said to Roxas, who was facing the closed door with a look that said he expected it to give at any moment.

Roxas was breathing hard, his chest expanding rapidly. "And get killed? Yeah, right."

"The opposite. The Keyblade is what most attracts the Heartless. Without it, other Shadows are too primal to find us in this world and join their brethren."

For a long second, Roxas clutched his weapons more tightly, as if to say he wouldn't be ordered about by some strange young woman. Then, his hands relaxed and the Keyblades dissolved away.

Estelle's eyes turned tired, bleak. "We'd better think fast. My spell won't hold them for long."

Roxas' were blazing. "What did you do?" he accused Ciel. Obviously, he'd heard Estelle's outburst.

"I don't know!" Ciel protested truthfully, shaking her head for added effect. "I don't know what happened. I don't even know what those things are."

As though he couldn't bear to be associated with an idiot like her, Roxas told Estelle, "She's new. Guess no one told her about the Heartless, which was what those things are, by the way," he said to Ciel. "They steal people's hearts because they lost their own to darkness. I've never seen so many before."

The brown eyes were closed, now. She didn't brush away the hair stuck damply to her face or wipe away the sweat. "It's because you unlocked this world's keyhole. Ciel, you fool. The Heartless will devour this world's heart and ours along with it."

"We don't have hearts," Ciel told her.

A sigh. "I am not so lucky. But neither are you safe. Since there is little chance that we can save ourselves and this world. Pity. I've grown fond of Traverse Town. I hate to leave it to its fate."

"But if I've 'unlocked' the keyhole, why can't we just lock it again?" Ciel suggested.

Her reply dashed what hope Ciel had. "Easily done. With a Keyblade, at least. The problem is the Heartless waiting out there to steal our—my heart and the world's."

"We'll go back now," Roxas decided, tone lofty. "While the Shadows are still stunned, tell me how to lock the keyhole. Me and Ciel'll defeat as many as we can while you maintain the spell. As long as it's only Shadows, this shouldn't be too difficult."

Estelle smiled, stretching against the wall. "Does this mean you trust me?"

"No way."

The raven-haired young woman shrugged. "As good a plan as any, I suppose." To Ciel, she said, "I am sorry I yelled earlier; I was merely terrified of what you've done."

Not to point a finger, or anything.

Ciel only nodded, consenting to Roxas' plan. She push up on the creaky latch holding the large doors in place until it came free with a grinding sound. She had to throw her weight against the door to get it open.

Roxas squeezed past her, arming himself quickly. "You take the right," he said softly.

Estelle croaked, looking ill, "Hurry."

* * *

**YAY It's Author Rant Time!**

Ehehehe... So, guys (girls...), what do you think of actual, real life ACTION? I know it's taken me six chapters and feel free to poke fun at my abysmally slow style of writing. Which is the exact problem with the fight scenes I write, I suppose. I am such a slow poke! Like the pokemon, only not so pink and minus the tail, and I'm TALL. Yeah. 5'8"... almost. Okay, so I'm not that tall. But being so big means I move slow, right? (_All right_, so I'm NOT that tall... -huff-)

But, really, my biggest question for this chapter is (dun-dun-dun!) how was the fight scene/entire Traverse Town... just... how was the whole chapter? -_-;  
Ugh... I really didn't know how to end it either (rather, how to transition to the ending I had planned. 'Cause I plan things now. See how I've grown? :D)

Thanks, all you old timers who haven't gotten tired of me! Welcome, new readers! There's nothing I love more than your presence (except maybe your feedback). Don't miss the continued rising action next time!

_Comments? Concerns? Contribute!_


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